Saturday, January 24, 2009

Seen on the Street- Sanctioned and Unsanctioned Art

As I'm walking around the city, one of the things I like to do is look at graffiti. Recently, I've seen some new public art pop up in my neighbourhood, as well as some politically oriented graffiti. It's true that sometimes I tire of the incessant parade of plaid shirts and overgrown, unkempt beards that adorn the fixie-riding hipster denizens of my neighbourhood, but I do love the creative and artistic energy that crops up as a result.

The first in the series of artistic sandwich boards (at least, the first I noticed) popped up outside a local coffee shop. The tiny text at the bottom reads "Instant Coffee Loves Everyone"

And the reverse side:

About fifteen blocks further up the street, another pair of signs await. It seems like instant coffee is everywhere....

And the reverse:

Here's the third sign, which should perhaps become the new City of Vancouver motto:

And it's other side:

More about Instant Coffee here. If you click you will see there's an interesting project involving buses covered with afghans that I'll be watching for...

I've seen a lot of political graffiti around town. Here are some examples from my neighbourhood. We have the anti-Olympics messages...

And the reaction of one of my neighbours to a recent news story, the latest in a string of stories which tarnish the reputation of local police forces:

In the category of one down and one to go....

(for my non-Canadian readers, the one on the left is our right-wing Prime Minister, Steven Harper).

Last, but not least, is a paste up I just plain like:

Do you enjoy graffiti? Feel that it's legitimate art, or condemn it as vandalism? Care to share any of your favorite instances of graffiti?